Last week, as I was preparing a different column, I learned through e-mails about a tragedy very close to home — two children were murdered by their caretaker in the Manhattan neighborhood where I live with my wife and son. Lucia Krim, one of the children who was killed, was a first grader at P.S. 87, where my son is in the fourth grade. I found myself unable to return to the piece I had been writing.

My mind, and heart, kept being pulled to the questions: How can parents possibly endure something like this? Is there anything a community can do to help? In the days that followed, I was impressed by the way the school’s principal and parent leaders communicated with parents and took initiative to organize meetings and workshops. As I spoke to others, it became clear that many felt a deep need to help. But what is there to do?